Comments

The white of the Swans neck is quite bright, and you cant see any detail in the feathers.
This is due to overexposure, so using a negative exposure compensation of perhaps -2/3 would have helped. It can be quite difficult to get the Swans white feathers right, and needs a bit of practice.
The composition is tight, and looks better if theres a little more space in front.
Using the highlight recovery tool in CS I was able to get the neck looking better with more detail, and Ive added a little space to the left.
Hope this helps,
regards
Willie

The white of the Swans neck is quite bright, and you cant see any detail in the feathers.

This is due to overexposure, so using a negative exposure compensation of perhaps -2/3 would have helped. It can be quite difficult to get the Swans white feathers right, and needs a bit of practice.

The composition is tight, and looks better if theres a little more space in front.

Using the highlight recovery tool in CS I was able to get the neck looking better with more detail, and Ive added a little space to the left.

Hi Helen, Nice sharp focus on the eye, however Willie is right you have got the whites to bright.
Swans are notorious for getting the white feathers over exposed, but there are things you can do to overcome the problem. First shoot in Raw that will give you a couple of aperture stops lea way reducing the risk of slight overexposure. Do as Willie suggest and apply some negative EV, as you can always lighten the image later whilst retaining the plumage detail. Swans tend to be inquisitive and tend to come to you, so you should have plenty of time to try different exposure settings and lots of shots.
You obviously have a steady hand as the focus is spot on, don't be afraid to up the ISO so that you can uses faster shutter speeds and smaller apertures.
Trev

Hi Helen, Nice sharp focus on the eye, however Willie is right you have got the whites to bright.

Swans are notorious for getting the white feathers over exposed, but there are things you can do to overcome the problem. First shoot in Raw that will give you a couple of aperture stops lea way reducing the risk of slight overexposure. Do as Willie suggest and apply some negative EV, as you can always lighten the image later whilst retaining the plumage detail. Swans tend to be inquisitive and tend to come to you, so you should have plenty of time to try different exposure settings and lots of shots.

You obviously have a steady hand as the focus is spot on, don't be afraid to up the ISO so that you can uses faster shutter speeds and smaller apertures.

At first sight a strong well composed image, but before relying on Photoshop or any software, you need to get the initial image as near correct as possible. Two things here. You are a little over exposed causing detail loss. If necessary, a tiny bit of under exposure helps when shooting. I have all my Canon DSLR's set for minus 1/3 stop as standard - which allows me to correct in software if necessary with detail almost always there.
There is a slight lack of sharpness and the blur on the water from the beak suggests movement of camera - shake. If you were hand holding, 1/250 sec is not fast enough as you were actually at 300mm. It is almost impossible to fully correct camera shake blur fully in software.
Paul

At first sight a strong well composed image, but before relying on Photoshop or any software, you need to get the initial image as near correct as possible. Two things here. You are a little over exposed causing detail loss. If necessary, a tiny bit of under exposure helps when shooting. I have all my Canon DSLR's set for minus 1/3 stop as standard - which allows me to correct in software if necessary with detail almost always there.

There is a slight lack of sharpness and the blur on the water from the beak suggests movement of camera - shake. If you were hand holding, 1/250 sec is not fast enough as you were actually at 300mm. It is almost impossible to fully correct camera shake blur fully in software.